


Piece By Piece

by WhimsyNeptune



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Cora Can't Handle Rejection, Cora tried to ruin things but she actually helped, F/F, Light Angst with a Happy Ending, Regina is Scared Of Rejection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-16
Updated: 2017-01-16
Packaged: 2018-11-19 17:06:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11317863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhimsyNeptune/pseuds/WhimsyNeptune
Summary: “That was until the day Emma Swan came marching up my walkway with my son in tow.“And when I looked into her eyes, those eyes, those beautiful green eyes, I saw a woman that genuinely cared for my little boy, and felt as though she wasn't what he deserved. That for some reason I was the one he needed even though I was the one he had run away from. I was suddenly drawn to her.”OrCora sends Regina a letter, Regina responds with another, and Cora doesn’t like that so she dispels Regina's biggest secret... one that will turn the Mayor’s life upside down in a way she’d never expected.





	Piece By Piece

Cora was pleasantly surprised to see a pigeon sitting on her window sill with a letter attached to its foot. She was even more thrilled to see that the letter was from her daughter, Regina, in response to the letter she had sent to her daughter just a day before, asking for a chance at reconciliation.

She smiled as she unrolled it, and began to read.

_Mother,_

_I must admit that I was surprised to hear from you. It's been over three years now. To be quite honest I was hoping that you were dead, or at least senile, but it looks as though my wishes are never fulfilled. Even if they would benefit the entire world._

_As I was growing up, I had to endure your neglectfulness, hatred, abuse, and then, finally, the murder of my fiancé at your hands._

_You left me feeling hopeless, abandoned, and unlovable._

_So I obeyed your command and married Leopold. But I had no one. I felt unloved, unwanted, and downright lonely._

_Loneliness sounds like such an easy thing to fix: find a friend, reach out to someone who cares. Every time I tried though, they recoiled, unwilling to offer an olive branch of hope to the social leper, the queen that seemed so weak and only out for the king's power, and so my anxiety deepened._

_There were nights it took hold of me. All I could do in those long black hours was find an enclosed place to shake until the tears subsided and I could focus on the dawn light, and breathe. It wasn't simply a lack of company, though that's part of it for sure, it was a black hole that grew stronger with every social snub. It threatened to swallow every part of me, bad and good until all that was left was a human-shaped shell too numb to feel the pain anymore._

_So in order to feel again, I grabbed hold of my anger, hatred, and resentment. I killed my 'husband,' took over the kingdom, and destroyed everyone's happiness just like you did to me._

_But even in what was supposed to be my happy ending, that loneliness came crawling back to to the surface and threatened to engulf me once more._

_So I came up with a plan, and with the 'help' of Rumpelstiltskin, I adopted Henry. I vowed the minute I saw his beautiful hazel eyes that I will never leave him like you left me, and he will never have to wonder his worth because unlike you I will put him first. For eleven years, I had someone who loved me, and needed me, and made me feel whole._

_But, I did end up turning into you. I held onto him too tight after he was given the storybook, and I made him feel like I never loved him. So once again I lost faith in myself, I lost faith that I could be loved, and I lost faith in the fact that a mother could be great._

_That was until the day Emma Swan came marching up my walkway with my son in tow._

_And when I looked into her eyes, those eyes, those beautiful green eyes, I saw a woman that genuinely cared for my little boy, and felt as though she wasn't what he deserved. That for some reason I was the one he needed even though I was the one he had run away from. I was suddenly drawn to her, but I refused to admit my attraction._

_She sacrificed her happiness to make sure that he was in a safe environment, and decided to stay in a town that was completely foreign to her. She knew no one and had nothing, yet she stayed simply for the love she still had for her son… our son._

_I was jealous. The connection she had with Henry was unlike anything I had ever had with him. So I decided to make her life hell to try to get her to leave and keep him all to myself._

_But she stayed for him._

_Eventually, I spread rumors about her through the entire town._

_She still stayed for him._

_And because of that, piece by piece, she restored my faith that a mother could be great. That a mother could, stay._

_Then, one day when she came to my office to confront me about something I had printed in the newspaper about her, the building caught on fire. I ended up getting my ankle smashed, and was unable to escape myself. The only way I would have been able to escape was with the woman whose life I was trying to ruin. She knew it, and I knew it._

_I knew there was no reason for her to save me, and I accepted the fact that she was going to abandon me._

_But she didn't._

_She came back for me and saved my life._

_That was the day I knew that this woman had a hold on me._

_You came back after the curse broke, and you framed me for a murder that would surely have the entire town hating me. Which it did, everyone had no problems blaming me, except Emma._

_She went against her entire family because she believed in me even when my own son didn't._

_After that day, piece by piece, she collected the pieces of myself that were lost, and slowly restored my faith in myself. Making me believe that I am lovable after all._

_We began to get closer, to become friends. After a while, Emma, Henry, and I became somewhat of a family. Finally one day, after about two years, Emma fixed me completely. She found every piece that you destroyed and put it back together with her friendship. My loneliness has evaporated because not only did she give me her friendship, but she gave me a chance to be the mother I always wanted to be to Henry, by opening up my eyes._

_I eventually I fell in love with the beautiful Emma Swan. I will never tell her; I value our friendship way too much to ruin it with my feelings. Love is not winning someone, but losing yourself to someone even if your love is not reciprocated. She may not love me back, but the fact that my heart is loving again, after all, it's been through shows you just how strong I am now. Because we both know that your myth of love being weakness is utter bullshit.Love is strength._

_So, I don't need to reconcile with you, mother. I am happy without your approval and inviting you back into my life would only prove toxic. This will be the last you hear from me._

_Goodbye, Mother._

_-Regina_

Cora stood as still as death. Frozen in place like a statue in the middle of a deserted town. Her fury was rising to an all-time high. She was just about to rip up the letter when she suddenly realized she had the upper hand. She quickly sent the messenger pigeon away with the letter and sat down to write her own.

XXX

Regina sat at her office desk, trying to focus on her paperwork, but failing miserably. She was extremely unnerved by the letter she had received from her mother the day before. She hoped that the letter she sent to her mother would be enough to get through to the older woman, but sincerely doubted that it would be.

She sat staring at the papers on her desk until she heard a tapping at her window. She swirled around in her chair and saw another messenger pigeon sitting there obediently. She sighed, opened the window, and removed the message from the bird's foot.

She opened the letter to read what it said, and once she did, she felt sick to her stomach with fear.

 

_I sent her the letter, darling. Now she knows._

_Love always,_

_-Mommy._

 

Regina immediately grabbed her jacket and teleported herself to the sheriff station. To hell with not using my magic she thought. She rushed through the door and screamed for Emma. Terror was coursing through her body.

She stopped short when she noticed the blonde sheriff in her closed office, staring at a letter with furrowed brows.

Regina gulped. She now had chattering teeth due to a quivering jaw. She clenched her teeth in an effort to keep her jaw still; then dropped the jaw so as to breathe in more oxygen in preparation for what's to come.

When she saw Emma's eyes widen with raised eyebrows, and shortly after watched as her jaw dropped she felt paralyzed with fear. She couldn't handle the rejection that was sure to come. This rejection would be the most devastating rejection she could possibly endure. If she lost Emma, he would have lost her one and only friend, and the person who would own her heart until the end of time. _Why did I have to be so stupid? I knew mother wouldn't handle my refusal well. Why did I have to hand her a loaded gun along with it?_ She chastised herself.

At that moment Emma raised her head and connected their eyes. Dark brown met Emerald green. Regina tried to swallow the lump in her throat. She couldn't read Emma's expression like she usually could.

As Regina kept staring at the Sheriff, the blonde made a "come hither" motion with her index finger, and her body started moving towards the blonde out of instinct even if her mind was telling it to run and never look back. When she reached the office, Regina's heart was trying it's best to beat regularly, but instead it was beating so rapidly that it sounded as though it were in her head, and not her chest.

She reached the door when pure terror surged through her veins; it was like a thousand icy daggers straight to the heart. She opened the door and walked into the tiny office. She cleared her throat and tried to speak without giving away how terrified she was. "Did you need something, dear?" She asked while she mentally chastised herself for not being able to hide the tremor in her voice.

Emma looked at Regina with concern in her eyes. "Regina, we need to talk."

Fear curled up inside her and clung to her ribs, settling uncomfortably in her chest. "What about?" She asked just as tremulously.

Emma cleared her throat and read a passage from Regina's letter. "I eventually I fell in love with the beautiful Emma Swan. I will never tell her; I value our friendship way too much to ruin it with my feelings."

Regina looked towards the floor, unable to keep eye contact with Emma now that she knew her deepest hidden desire.

"Is it true?" Emma asked gently.

Regina felt tears fall down her cheek, she quickly wiped them away and rose her head up to look at Emma. "I-I'm sorry, Emma. Please, we can get passed this somehow, I don't want to lose yo-" Before Regina could finish her sentences she was stopped by Emma's forefinger being placed against her lips.

"Regina, it's okay. Just answer the question. Is what you said in the letter true?" Emma asked with care, compassion, and kindness.

The Mayor gulped as the finger removed itself from her lips in order to let her speak. "Yes." She murmured. She faced tilted her face to the floor once more but was swiftly brought back up with a loose grip on her chin. When her head was fully raised, she looked at Emma with scared eyes, but quickly opened wider in shock when Emma's lips connected with hers. She then closed them once reality set in, and she realized that she was kissing the woman she'd been secretly in love with for over two years.

The kiss obliterated her every thought. For the first time in forever, Regina's mind was locked into the present. The worries of the day evaporated like a summer shower on a hot car. Her fear of rejection dissipated like the cloud of smoke left behind after she transported somewhere. Her usual mode of hurrying from one thing to the next was suspended, she had no wish for the kiss to end. Drunk on endorphins her only desire was to touch Emma, to move her hands under the sheriff's layers of clothing and feel her perfect softness. She refrained from doing so and managed to stay above the clothing just as Emma did. In moments the soft caresses had become more firm, she savored Emma's lips and the quickening of her breath that matched Regina's. A kiss like that was a beginning, a promise of much more to come.

When they pulled apart, they were both breathless. Regina looked into the green eyes she'd fallen in love with and looked into the pleadingly. "What does that make us?" She asked.

Emma smiled. "Girlfriends."

Regina's smile was the biggest, and brightest it had ever been as she pulled the blonde in, and wrapped her arms around the Saviors waist while she rested her forehead against Emma's. "I love you, Emma Swan."

Emma chuckled. "I love you too, Regina Mills."

**Author's Note:**

> This may not be the greatest short story that I've written but it was quite difficult to write, and I think it's at least decent. I hope you enjoyed.


End file.
